The invention relates to the field of waveguides, and in particular to an on-chip silicon-based Photonic Crystal (PC) cladded waveguide.
Recently, interest in guiding light within low-index materials (including air) has increased, with new devices that use a photonic band gap (PBG) or Bragg reflection to confine light. Specific examples include 2D photonic crystal fibers and ARROW waveguides. Another example, the onmiguide fiber, uses high index contrast concentric dielectric layers to enhance the mode confinement in a relatively simple structure. It is difficult to fabricate this structure on a silicon chip. However, the same principle of using 1D omnidirectional mirrors can be applied to an alternative structure that can be fabricated with current microelectronics technology processes (CMOS compatible processes).